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Women's Basketball Notes.pdf
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PLAYER OF THE WEEK UTEP's Romie DeAnda has been named the Western Athletic Conference women's basketball Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 6-12. This is the second career WAC Player of the Week honor for the senior. Her teammate Dragana Zoric earned the award the week of Dec. 9.
DeAnda a forward from El Paso, Texas, led the Miners to their first two WAC wins since January of 2001 when UTEP defeated SMU, 76-73. UTEP defeated Nevada, 63-55, and beat Fresno State, 90-68. The win against the Bulldogs was the first time that the Miners had scored at least 90 points this season. With the two victories, it is the first time that UTEP has reached the .500 mark through four league games since the 1997-98 season.
The senior averaged 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals and one assists in two games. She shot 60.7 percent (17-28) and 66.7 percent (4-6) from three-point range. She tied her career high with 24 points and 10 rebounds for her second-career double-double against Fresno State. She added scored 14 more points in the win over Nevada. For the season, DeAnda averages 9.7 ppg and 3.8 rpg.
OTHERS NOMINATED Also nominated: Jamie Hawkins, Boise State; Amber Obaze, Louisiana Tech; Johnetta Hayes, Rice; Andrea Cossey, SMU and Alyssa Shriver, Tulsa.
Boise State's Hawkins helped lead the Broncos to their first WAC win of the season over Nevada by the score of 77-65. She recorded 16 points, six rebounds, no turnovers and a team season high of five steals. She led the Broncos to a season best effort inside the post as Boise State outscored Nevada
32-18 in the paint.
Louisiana Tech's Obaze averaged 18.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting 63 percent (17-27) from the field to lead Louisiana Tech to wins over two of the WAC's previously undefeated league teams in San Jose State (83-38) and Hawaii (60-52). Obaze led Louisiana Tech in scoring in both games, scoring 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting against San Jose State and scoring 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting against Hawaii.
Rice's Hayes matched her career-high of 15 rebounds for the third time at Tulsa. She recorded 15 rebounds in each of last season's games against the Hurricane. Hayes also matched her best 12 defensive boards, which she also set last year against Tulsa. She recorded her second double-double of the season with 15 points and 15 boards at Tulsa.
SMU's Cossey has scored in double figures in SMU's last nine games. She leads the squad in scoring with 14.7 points per game. She has connected on 58.2% of SMU's three-point field goals. The junior needs to average 13.8 ppg to eclipse the 1,000-point mark this season.
Tulsa's Shriver led the Golden Hurricane to a 1-0 record last week with a 59-58 overtime victory at home against Rice. Shriver narrowly missed a triple-double with 10 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocked shots against the Owls. Shriver's eight blocks are the second-most in school history, and she has now notched four or more blocked shots in 15 career games.s
TICKETS ON SALE FOR WOMEN'S BASKETBALL NCAA FIRST AND SECOND ROUNDS IN RUSTON - The Thomas Assembly Center will once again play host to the NCAA Tournament as Louisiana Tech will be one of 16 sites for the 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball first and second rounds.
Louisiana Tech and Ruston will host the first and second rounds March 23 and 25. Four teams will compete at the Ruston site.
Tickets are already on sale for the two-day event that will feature three games, two first-round contests on March 23 and a single second-round game on March 25. This year marks the first time that ESPN will televise all 63 games of the women's tournament, including the three in Ruston.
Season ticket holders can currently purchase tickets for their regular seats for the first- and second-rounds. Only ticket packages for the entire event can be purchased (no single game tickets will be sold), adult ticket packages starting at $15 while college and high school students ticket packages are $12.
For more information or to purchase tickets for the first and second rounds, call the Louisiana Tech Ticket Office at 257-3631.
WEEK NINE WAC play heats up in the ninth week of women's basketball action. The number of undefeated teams in league play has been reduced to two: Louisiana Tech (3-0) and Tulsa (3-0). This week, the Lady Techsters travel to Nevada and Fresno State, looking to extend its WAC-high eight-game winning streak. Tulsa holds a winning streak of four games. This week, the Hurricane host UTEP and Boise State. Both the Broncos and Miners posted WAC wins last week. The WAC has four teams with even 2-2 WAC records. Two of those teams, San Jose State and Hawaii will meet in Honolulu on Sunday, Jan. 19. Both teams lost each of their WAC games last week and look to get back on track.
CURTIN REACHES MILESTONES In Tulsa's game against Rice, Allison Curtin reached several career plateau's including 600 rebounds and 300 steals. The transer from Illinois is 139 points shy of 2000 career points and 25 assists away from 400 for her career.
SCORING FRENZY The Miners scored 90 points on Jan. 11 for the first time since becoming part of the WAC for the 1990-91 season. Before that, the last Miner team to score over 90 points came on Jan. 4, 1992 when they defeated Florida A&M, 96-55. Keitha Green is very familiar with coaching high-scoring teams, her 2000-01 Independence C.C. squad led the NJCAA, averaging 94.0 points. This season, UTEP has scored over 80 points in five games and is 4-1 in those contests.
ON A ROLL Louisiana Tech's current eight-game winning streak is the longest this season in the WAC. The Lady Techsters have not lost since losing to No. 5 Tennessee 60-35 on Dec. 4. Nevada had a five-game winning streak earlier in the season. Tulsa is currently in the midst of a season-high four-game winning streak. Four other squads had three-game winning streaks, Fresno State, SMU, Tulsa and Hawaii two times.
NON-CONFERENCE MARK WAC teams are 52-45 (.536) in non-conference games. The WAC is 3-11 against teams that were ranked or are ranked in the top 25. Louisiana Tech is 2-1 after defeating then-No. 7 Texas Tech and then-No. 25 New Mexico, but falling to No. 5 Tennessee. Tulsa is 0-4 after falling to then-No. 24 Mississippi State, then-No. 22 Oklahoma, No. 13 Arkansas and No. 1 Duke. SMU has a win over Oklahoma and a loss to Boston College.
IN THE POLLS Louisiana Tech is the only WAC team ranked in both the Associated Press and the ESPN polls. This week, the Lady Techsters moved up a spot to No. 11 in the AP poll which is its highest ranking since Nov. 25 when they were ranked No. 10 by both polls. Louisiana Tech moved up a spot to No. 12 in the ESPN poll.
WAC ROUNDUP Boise State snapped a six game skid against Nevada and claimed their first league win of the year. In addition against Nevada, they nearly broke the school record for single-game field goal percentage at .600 24-of-40 (school record is .670). They also shot a seven-year high for a half in the second period of .667 percent 12-of-18. Against Fresno State, the team shot a season third-best .455 percent from the floor 20-of-44 and .538 percent from beyond the three-point arc (7-of-13).
Fresno State is showing great improvement over last season. After winning just nine games overall last year for its lowest victory total since the 1981-82 season, the Bulldogs are playing much better this season. With its next win, Fresno State will match its win total of last season with 14 games still left in the reglular season. Three additional conference victories will also eclipse last seasons total of four, the fewest since the team won one conference game during the 1980-81 season.
Hawaii lost two-straight games for only the second time this season with WAC losses to SMU and Louisiana Tech. The Rainbow Wahine had another classic battle with Louisiana Tech. The two teams last met in the 2002 WAC Tournament championship game when the Lady Techsters outlasted the Rainbow Wahine, 53-50 in Tulsa. This week, Hawaii returns home to take on San Jose State on Sunday, Jan. 19.
Louisiana Tech senior center Cheryl Ford has scored 999 career points. Ford will become the 32nd Louisiana Tech player to ever score 1,000 career points. Both Ford (15.3 ppg, 14.3 rpg) and Trina Frierson (13.7, 10.0) are averaging double-doubles in WAC play. Ford has a string of four straight games with double doubles. Louisiana Tech has now won 80-straight regular season conference games at the Thomas Assembly Center dating back to the 1991-92 season. Louisiana Tech has also now won 138-straight games at the Thomas Assembly Center against unranked opponents dating back to the 1991-92 season.
Nevada continued its recent slide losing its fifth-straight game after winning five straight earlier this season. Nevada continued to struggle against Boise State, falling 77-65. The Broncos lead the all-time series17-3 against the Wolf Pack. This week, Nevada looks to get back on track at home. This will not be an easy task as the Wolf Pack will face No. 11 Louisiana Tech on Jan. 16 and SMU on Jan. 18 at home.
Rice has become seasoned travelers early this season. With seven of their first 10 games on the road, the Lady Owls have already played in five of the six time zones that fall in the U.S. Rice opened at Colorado (MST) before traveling to Nebraska (CST). The next week saw the Lady Owls in Fairbanks, Alaska (AST) before their first home game. Rice then went to Cincinnati, Ohio (EST) before Christmas, then opened WAC play at Fresno State and Nevada (PST). The only U.S. time zone left for the Lady Owls is Hawaii, and they will play in Honolulu on March 1.
San Jose State junior Cricket Williams scored a career-high 32 points in the Spartans 86-77 loss to SMU. Williams led the scoring for San Jose State. Her 32 points tied her for 10th all-time in San Jose State single-game scoring. She now has 981 career points and is 19 points shy of becoming just the ninth Spartan to hit 1,000 career points. This season, Williams is averaging 19.8 ppg and 22 ppg in WAC games.
SMU junior guard Shanta Ramdhanny joins Andrea Cossey in scoring in double figures in SMU's last nine games. Head coach Rhonda Rompola has gone with eight different starting lineups (in 13 games). SMU's 66-56 win over Hawaii was only the second victory for the Mustangs in the series history. The Mustangs shot a season-high 84.6% free throw percentage against Hawaii, while SMU's nine turnovers vs. the Rainbow Wahine was a season-low figure as well. SMU's 46 second-half points and 86 total points vs. San Jose State were season-high figures.
UTEP currently has a two-game conference winning streak with back-to-back victories over Nevada and Fresno State. The Miners last had consecutive victories during the 1998-1999 season when they won three straight over San Diego State, Fresno State and San Jose State. UTEP has not won four-consecutive league games since the 1997-98 season. UTEP continues to march toward double figures in victories. The Miners haven't won over 10 games since they won 12 during the 1998-99 season.
Tulsa and Rice battled to another instant classic last week. Since both teams joined the WAC for the 1996-97 campaign, Rice and TU have played a total of seven games in Tulsa. Of the seven games, two have gone to overtime and one was extended into double overtime. The single overtime games occurred in 2001-02 and 2002-03 with the Hurricane prevailing in both games. During the 1997-98 campaign, Rice and TU battled through two overtime periods before Tulsa came away with an 84-78 win. Tulsa has played a total of 10 games involving overtime in school history and three of those has been against Rice.
2003 WILLIAMS WAC TOURNAMENT The 2003 Williams WAC Tournament will be held March 11-15 at the Donald W. Reynolds Center in Tulsa, Okla. Both the women and men compete during the same week. On the womens side, the seven, eight, nine and 10 seeded teams will play on Tuesday, March 11. The remaining eight teams will all play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 12. The top seed faces the winner of the Tuesday eight-nine game. The No. 2 seed faces the winner of the seven-10 game, the No. 3 seed meets the No. 6 seed, while No. 4 is against No. 5. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday afternoon.
WILLIAMS IS TOURNAMENT SPONSOR For the third year in a row, Williams will be the WACs tournament sponsor. Williams, through its subsidiaries, connects businesses to energy, delivering innovative, reliable products and services. Williams information is available at www.williams.com.